Well Starbucks has the number one online brand presence as rated by several sources, so I'd say they are doing a pretty good job on that front. They are also early-adopters of mobile payment systems at select stores in the United States using your smart phone. One strategy that Starbucks could try online from my perspective of the might be trying to entice consumers with promotional rewards, say for every $100 you spend at Starbucks we'll give you a free Starbucks branded promotional item. They could also do what so many other companies are doing these days and eliminate some of the workforce, and integrate more duties with less pay for the current employees. Outsourcing cheaper labor would also work. Taking notes from what the corporate law firms and banks are doing, they could bring in one manager to learn what the lesser majority does, then take the knowledge overseas to teach and train the less expensive labor markets and save the bottom line.
To increase favor with their shareholders, they really need to identify their capital to them. Whether or not they have the resources to retain their current growth, and/or surpass it. They also need to increase their sales quite a bit in order to repress the shareholders fears. This ties directly with consumers. As long as consumers buy, the shareholders will buy stock, and feel comfortable with keeping it. To get consumers to consume more, they need to offer more of their products at reduced prices to not only increase their customer base, but to encourage the purchasing of more items. Since Starbucks has no absolute or comparative advantage over other coffee stores, the only way they can increase their customer base is by lowering prices, advertising the lowered prices, and advertising the enhanced quality of their products. This will all inherently drive up the customer base, encourage sales, cause the shareholders to become more confident in the company stock, and encourage more people to invest in Starbucks stock.
They could also look into shutting down nonproductive lines of their company completely. Just cutting the ties at each store producing a loss over the last year or two would help the oversaturation that has occurred. Some baristas and management staff maybe should be replaced completely with fresh blood to provide with newer and different ideas and fresh faces for the consumer to enjoy. Or maybe Starbucks should clean house, and sell everything that they have. Selling small but noticeable items such as the vanilla sprinkles that are on the lattes and other espresso drinks could be a great move that they could mark up and bring more value to the shareholders along with bringing favor back to the customer base. Or even selling the pumpkin spice and gingerbread syrups during fall and winter seasons respectively. These are always great sellers at the specific time of year, so why not put it on the shelves at stores like Kroger and Biggs.
Maybe Starbucks needs to reach out to the alienated ‘regular guy’ who doesn’t normally frequent the corner store. Part of the problem with Starbucks’ original model was appealing to a very specific audience. I can understand the idea of providing an authentic coffee house experience, but the culture of Starbucks is closed to certain groups. They should try to expand the market and provide lower priced and cost efficient blends as well as the light and dark roasts.
They also should advertise the free wireless internet access with in store personal computers that Starbucks provides, but with limited free roaming and advertising pop-ups that cannot be blocked that sell certain and specifically Starbucks branded products. They should also use social media to provide opportunities for customer feedback and provide customers promotional offers. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are all forums that Starbucks does not currently provide a strong presence in. Starbucks should be relegated to one store per square block. In improving the public image, they need to keep the stores cleaner. They sell good coffee, but the tables are usually messy and stained. Maybe a barista needs to be on constant watch to have better upkeep of the high priced coffee shop. Starbucks did really well when it was a rapidly growing company, obviously. They have added the instant coffee and flavored single serve packets to just add hot water and it seems to have over saturated their market even more. People are now frequenting Kroger more, which pulls them out of spending $5 on an espresso beverage and pinching more pennies at the grocery. There are Starbucks coffee shops in just about every developed country in the world. There is probably a limit on coffee consumption and the company seems to have reached the peak consumption point.
They could look into developing an even more premium blend of coffee to attract the top executives to drop some more cheese on the upper echelon, top notch ultra premium blends. Creating the greatest tasting coffee in the history of the world would bring in the richest and the most prestigious, therefore starting an epidemic and then they could utilize celebrity marketing to the fullest extent. Once the economy turns around, the middle class will also begin to devote more disposable income towards the top tiered goods from SBUX.
